Shayne Looper: What role does emotion play in the spiritual life?

Monday

Feb 28, 2011 at 12:01 AMFeb 28, 2011 at 5:54 AM

Frequently when an American church makes the evening news, the segment opens with the camera panning a church service where worshipers with closed eyes and raised hands sway to inspiring music. The viewer immediately makes the connection between emotion and worship (and by extension, to religion generally).

Shayne Looper

Frequently when an American church makes the evening news, the segment opens with the camera panning a church service where worshipers with closed eyes and raised hands sway to inspiring music. The viewer immediately makes the connection between emotion and worship (and by extension, to religion generally).

Had the same viewer witnessed a worship service a hundred years ago, he might not have made that connection. He probably wouldn’t have seen people swaying with hands in the air. Were the people then — or those in less emotionally expressive churches now — somehow inferior to today’s more emotional counterparts? Of course not.

If we are to understand the role of emotion in religion we must place it in the larger context of the American way of regarding feelings (both sensations and emotions). This is not a static thing. It is always in flux, and has gone through dramatic changes in the last several generations.

Americans (and Westerners generally) once regarded emotions with suspicion and, in some cases, even distaste. Life, they believed, is better when governed by reason. Keep a stiff upper lip, and all that.

There was a time when the only thing to fear was fear itself. But what people now fear is being cheated out of the experience of a full life. Such a life, it is presumed, can only be had by casting off the antiquated rules and traditions that hinder people from following their desires.

Within this ideological framework feelings are invested with god-like status. Feelings, not social contracts (like marriage) or responsibilities (like parenting) dictate conduct. Under such conditions, it is inevitable that a highly addictive culture will develop — and that is clearly what we are.

When feelings are deified, those insatiable gods turn on their worshipers and destroy them. For example, when feelings are exalted over character, faithfulness suffers and families fail to thrive. If responsibilities to a spouse get in the way, marriage is sacrificed on the altar of feelings.

But if feelings are not the final arbiter of conduct, what role should they play in the spiritual life? The same role they should play in human life generally — to warn, beckon, bid. That is, to get us moving.

Feelings serve the role in the human that an ignition system serves in a car. When you turn the key in your car’s ignition switch, several things happen. The starter motor’s bendix gear engages the flywheel and turns the crankshaft, which causes the pistons to move in their cylinders, drawing in a mixture of air and fuel.

At the same time, an electrical charge is distributed to the spark plugs situated above the cylinders. Each time the high-voltage charge “sparks,” the compressed air/fuel mix combusts, driving the pistons, which raise and lower the rods on the turning crankshaft. Put the car in gear, the wheels turn, and you’re off.

Feelings have the power to get us going, the way the ignition system gets a car going. But just as the ignition system cannot steer or stop the car, feelings cannot steer our lives. They cannot tell us if we are going in the right direction or stop us if we’re not.

That’s why it is a mistake to pursue feelings as an end in themselves, whether in life generally or in a relationship to God specifically. The person who does is like a driver who hits the ignition over and over. The car will eventually lose its spark. And so will the individual whose only goal is to experience feelings — spiritual or otherwise.

Shayne Looper is the pastor at the Lockwood Community Church in Michigan. He can be reached at salooper@dmcibb.net.

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